Ben Frost

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Artist Biography

Born in 1980 in Melbourne, Australia, Ben Frost relocated to Reykjavík Iceland in 2005 and working together with close friends Valgeir Sigurðsson and Nico Muhly, formed the Bedroom Community record label/collective.

In 2010 he was chosen by Brian Eno as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protegé program for a year of collaboration, one of the outcomes of which was Sólaris; a re-scoring of the Tarkovsky classic for Poland's Sinfonietta Cracovia. Eno and Frost continue to work together on a range of projects.

Frost regularly works with other musicians and artists; in the production of studio albums such as Tim Hecker's Ravedeath 1972 and Virgins, SWANS The Seer, Colin Stetson's New History Warfare, and on various Bedroom Community releases. On the stage Frost has produced scores for choreographers including Wayne McGregor/Random Dance, Akram Khan, and German director Falk Richter. In film, he composed the score for the Palme d'Or nominated Sleeping Beauty by Julia Leigh, and Djúpið by Icelandic Director Baltasar Kormákur (with Daníel Bjarnason, for which the pair won the Icelandic film award for best score in 2013). And in the visual arts, where, with artist Richard Mosse, Frost travelled deep beyond the frontlines of war-torn Eastern Congo to produce The Enclave; a multi-channel video and sound installation that premiered at the Venice Biennale in 2013.

2013 also marked the première of Frost's first opera, based on Iain Bank´s infamous 1984 novel The Wasp Factory. The project also marked his debut as a director.

These various collaborations and alliances underline Frost's continuing fascination with finding ways of juxtaposing music, rhythm, technology, the body, performance, text, art -beauty and violence- combining and coalescing the roles and procedures of various artistic disciplines in one place.

Selected Press

Simply awesome... Frost reminds us that minimalism was never just the polished sheen of Reich and Glass, but also the sweat and grime of Michael Gira's Swans... A deeper, darker minimalism- menacing and claustrophobic

WIRE Magazine

No equivocation necessary, By the Throat is a sinister album, full of moments that rattle cores... But Frost's work is more than a hall of terrors: These vivid instrumentals, which seem menacing at first, also feel somehow triumphant when heard again--new details becoming more crucial. By the Throat might frighten on the first listen, and it might shock by the 12th. But, somewhere in between, Frost--both a compelling new musical dramaturge and arranger--might just show you the silver lining of all these fears.

Pitchfork

A break in the evolutionary ladder, a jump across links in the Darwinian chain, a re-mapping of sonic DNA... Frost has taken modern music off the respirator and sent it once again into the wild unknown.

The Silent Ballet

The compositional complexity of Arvo Pärt and the sonic nothingness of Wolf Eyes... Yes, it is that good.